Battle lines in Venezuela still tense after third U.S.-backed coup attempt fails

May 3 — The attempted coup in Caracas this week made it obvious that anti-imperialists in the United States must steel themselves for a protracted struggle against the U.S. ruling class and its aggressive designs on Venezuela.

A major part of that struggle will be against media lies. Both the pro- and anti-Trump sectors of the corporate media are spewing the most vicious and unsubstantiated lies in order to vilify elected Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his supporters.

The entire aim of a May 3 New York Times front-page article — based on allegedly leaked information from Venezuelan intelligence — was to smear the Maduro government asa so-called key player in the cocaine trade.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper tweeted: “Maduro government mows down citizens in the streets.” The attached photo showed Guaidó’s own troops firing guns, so Tapper had to take that lie back.

Corporate media reports out of Venezuela exaggerate the support for Juan Guaidó, Washington’s choice for that country’s “president,” and minimize or fail to mention the massive popular demonstrations backing Maduro.

Ruling-class agreement

An important aspect of the struggle against U.S. covert actions is to denounce and oppose agreement among ruling-class factions to attack Venezuela.

Both neocon militarists and neoliberal diplomats back this U.S. aggression. Among leading establishment Democrats, Joe Biden, now running for president, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have both attacked the Venezuelan government, even though this lines them up with the most reactionary elements of Trump’s Republican White House.

Establishment Democrats and Republicans shamelessly call Maduro “repressive” when, for example, their friend the French president has put more people in the hospital in one weekend for demonstrating in his country than President Maduro and the Chavistas have injured while opposing three U.S.-backed attempted coups in Venezuela.

The Bolton-Abrams-Pompeo-Rubio gang and their Venezuelan puppets flopped this week for the third time in an attempted overthrow of the elected Bolivarian government. It took only 12 hours on April 30 for right-wing conspirator Leopoldo Eduardo López to go from co-announcing a coup in support of presidential pretender Guaidó to seeking somewhere to hide, first in the Chilean and then the Spanish Embassy in Caracas.

Instead of attacking the White House for inept militarism at least — if not for outright criminal imperialism — the Biden-Pelosi Democrats keep harping on Trump’s relationship with Russia.

Inside Venezuela

On May Day, while Guaidó managed to get some backers from the wealthier Caracas neighborhoods into the streets, far more Chavistas came out to defend Nicolás Maduro’s government. On May 2, President Maduro met with 4,500 officers and troops, calling on them to go into combat to defend their country from the imperialist threat.

Maduro told the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) troops, “We are involved in a battle against imperialism, traitors and coup-makers, a battle on all fronts, along the entire line, for the defense of our dignity, our honor, the right of our republic to exist along with our national identity. The FANB must show to our people that it is united, cohesive, more and more disciplined, subordinate to constitutional command, more and more obedient to these principles and values. It has to show itself as a national force for peace, democracy, constitutional and Bolivarian rule.” (pagina12.com.ar, May 3)

Inside the United States

Many of the International Workers’ Day, May Day, demonstrations in the U.S. this year raised defense of Venezuelan sovereignty against U.S. imperialism.

For those in the U.S. who have been protesting the assault on Venezuelafor the past several months, another hot spot this week has been the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, D.C. The Venezuelans who had used the embassy left after breaking relations with the United States — when the White House officially recognized the serial coup schemerGuaidó as president.

The Bolivarian government turned the office over to U.S. individuals and groups who are defendingthe rights of the Maduro government against U.S. intervention. These groups have been occupying the embassy to keep it out of the hands of Guaidó’s forces. On May 1, the people inside were able to keep out Guaidó’s so-called ambassador, Carlos Vecchio, and beat back the coup supporters, just as they were defeated in Venezuela.

The next day, pro-rightist and pro-fascist Venezuelans living in the United States who support Guaidó launched a sustained attack on the occupiers. Police arrested two people from the Embassy Protection Collective and beat at least one of them.

Despite the lack of popular support in Venezuela for the rightists, the apparent continued support of the Bolivarian Armed Forces for the constitutional government, and the reluctance of even the most right-wing U.S. client regimes in South America — in Colombia and Brazil — to risk military intervention, nevertheless the threat to Venezuela remains.

And so does the responsibility for anti-imperialists in the United States to defend the Bolivarian government from U.S. attack, including death-wielding economic sanctions and mercenary warfare.

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— WW managing editors: John Catalinotto, Martha Grevatt, Deirdre Griswold, Monica Moorehead, Betsey Piette and Minnie Bruce Pratt.